- The Guardian,
- Friday December 22 2006
A filter which scientists say will remove variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease - the human form of "mad cow" disease - from donated blood could be used by the National Blood Transfusion Service after trials proved it reduces transmission to zero in animal trials.
It offers the first hope of stemming the spread of the fatal illness. Thousands are thought to be infected through transfusions but are not yet aware because of the disease's long incubation period.
The US scientists working for Prion Capture Technology have identified a protein which binds with prions in blood to remove them. The studies in 99 hamsters - published today in the Lancet - reduced transmission to zero after filtering blood infected with scrapie and they say it will do the same for vCJD in humans.
Marc Turner, clinical director of the Edinburgh blood transfusion service, said: "It is a good piece of work. The UK blood service will be evaluating the filters." The UK and Ireland blood services had begun safety trials and would be looking for healthy volunteers to test transfusions.
If approved the bill for the transfusion service could be up to £100m a year, the current cost of screening systems for other infections.
Since 1996 there have been 199 worldwide cases of vCJD of which 164 were in the UK. In 2004 a British study of 12,000-plus people revealed three incubating cases of vCJD, indicating that at least 3,800 people aged 10-30 years old may be infected without showing symptoms.
